Talley Services (yup, that's the group's name, and the shop's)

John Talley and Talley Services band are heading to an international festival. He discusses his blues passion and origin.

Rick Smith

Darren Morrison plays the harmonica with fellow members of the local San Angelo blues band Talley Services at Sealy Flats.

Patrick Dove/Standard-Times

Andrew Barrett, lead guitarist for local blues band Talley Services, plays with fellow band members at Sealy Flats. The band won top honors at this year’s Simply Texas Blue Festival in San Angelo.

Patrick Dove/Standard-Times

John Talley moves his fingers across the keyboard during a concert with his band Talley Services at Sealy Flats. Talley Services, a blues band in San Angelo, won the group division at the Simply Texas Blues Festival earlier this year.

Patrick Dove/Standard-Times

John Talley, keyboardist and lead singer for the blues band Talley Services, sings at a recent concert at Sealy Flats in San Angelo. Talley Services took first place in the group band division at the 2010 Simply Texas Blues Festival and will compete at the national competition next year in Memphis.

Patrick Dove/Standard-Times

SAN ANGELO, Texas - He can tune anything from a grand piano to a vintage Jaguar’s motor.

His big hands, experts at repairing automobile engines, also know how to make a keyboard sing.

“Music and cars,” John Talley said. “That’s always been my life: cars and music. Sometimes music was full-time and cars part-time. Then the cars would take over and music would go part-time.”

Talley Services, Talley’s latest band, shares the name with his auto repair shop on West Washington Drive.

He and Darren Morrison, another popular local musician, put the band together to compete in May’s Simply Texas Blues Festival in downtown San Angelo.

“It was a project Darren and I started together with the other guys,” Talley said. “We’re all good friends.”

It also helped that they had worked together before.

For the local competition, “The five of us got together four times,” Talley said. “A lot of those songs we had done in the past, but I wanted to give them more of my twist.”

Talley Services won the festival’s band category. The prize includes an invitation to compete in the International Blues Challenge in Memphis, Tenn., next February.

Talley’s modest about their accomplishment.

“There were a lot of good people playing” at the San Angelo festival, he said.

“We just got up on stage and did our deal.”

On a recent evening at Sealy Flats’ outdoor courtyard on Oakes Street, the band delivered an encore: two hours of cool, sizzling blues played to a full house of fans and music lovers.

Wearing their trademark khaki work shirts with Talley Services patches sewn over the pockets, the band’s blues ranged from classic favorites to original numbers.

In addition to Talley on keyboards and vocals and Morrison’s mean harmonica, the band includes the Shanks Brothers — Jimmy on the drums, Tim on bass — and Andrew Barrett on lead guitar.

One song after another, the band “did their deal” for the Sealy Flats crowd. They played the blues.

Just as making music’s an art, so is making a band, Talley said a few days after the show.

“You find people you mix well with,” he said. “I want to be comfortable when I’m playing and feel at home on the stage. If that homey feeling isn’t there, then you look for something else. When I’m up there, playing and singing, I don’t want to have to be constantly thinking about what we’re doing.

“I just want it to flow right out of here,” he said, placing a fist over his heart.

Talley, a Dallas native who recently turned 60, said he has known he was a musician since age “7 or 8.”

He started playing professionally when he was 15 years old, working with other young Dallas-area musicians, including future legends like Jimmie Vaughan and Doyle Bramhall.

“In those bands, a lot of what we played was the blues and R&B,” he said. “That’s when I really started playing blues, from 1966 to 1969 or so. I don’t play just the blues anymore, but that root is always there.”

Talley majored in music and English at North Texas State University (now the University of North Texas) from 1968 to 1971, but left before graduating to tour California with a “hot little band.”

“We did some recording, then things sort of fizzled,” he said, shaking his head.

He moved to San Angelo in 1978, following his wife-to-be Cathy, who teaches mathematics at Angelo State University.

“I just fell in love with San Angelo,” said Talley, who first worked as a piano tuner for Mary Livingston’s music store here and also as a Volkswagen mechanic for the Hair family’s D&D Imports while also playing with local bands.

He later opened his own garage while continuing his music, performing with local groups, playing with his church’s band and working with musical theater productions.

“I don’t think I’ve ever gone more than a day without playing the piano,” he said.

His strategy for the Memphis competition?

Some competitors pattern their acts after previous winners, Talley said, but he doesn’t agree with that approach.

“I think we just practice being ourselves and do our music and go there and play it well.”

Talley admitted he has given some thought to what might happen if Talley Services should win the Memphis competition.

“Winning would open up a lot of opportunities,” he said. “And I think just being there might open up some jobs. There’s the possibility of getting a gig in Chicago or New York or London.”

Talley said he has always considered himself as a professional musician.

“I’m just not a full-time professional musician,” he said, smiling.

That could change.

“There have been times in my life I was playing five nights a week, and after a few months of that you still feel cool. You feel great every time you get on stage. You get to play music and share that with people.”

And with the blues, he said, anything’s possible.

But win or lose, the blues takes care of you, Talley said.

“If you’re feeling bad, hopefully, the blues will make you feel better.